Spoke too soon

Well there's lots going on. First of all I watched a video of one of the well prepped cars that was built for this years La Carrera Panamericana and the driver was excited because his car was ready some 70 days before the race but while he was testing he wrecked the car and the entire driver's side of the car was out to lunch. Too bad and we're looking forward to him getting it ready in time.

Meanwhile back at the shop it seems I spoke too soon regarding the quality of the Doug's headers. While in fact they did fit easily into the car there was a major problem. When I tried to install the clutch controls there was no way they were going to work. When I called their tech line I was unfortunate to have the displeasure of speaking with possibly one of the rudest punks that I have ever talked to. I won't waste my time quoting him however I will say I have had more intelligent conversations with farm animals. In all fairness I did call back and spoke to their higher powers and they are looking into the matter. It will be interesting to see how Doug headers handles customer satisfaction.

In Total Control

Today my power steering pump kit was shipped from Total Control Products and it will be one of the next few goodies to be installed later in the week. It is a racing version of the same pump used by NASCAR teams and makes for a very sanitary install. In place of their blue cloth type hoses we will be using braided stainless hoses and special fittings.

Fits Like Cinderella's Glass Slipper

WOW BIG FELLA! That's right, Lucky is looking pretty cool tonight and just like Cinderella's slipper, Lucky's engine couldn't have been a more perfect fit. Aside of the usual need to change a few fittings and order a different clutch equalizer for header clearance everything fit like the proverbial glove. Regarding the DOUGS HEADERS, I must say I was really impressed with the fit. I have installed so many sets of headers in mustangs that I could do it in my sleep. Typically most of them require some modification in order to fit but these went in so fast I kept thinking I must have forgotten something. It sure says a lot about DOUGS HEADERS quality. WOW!

Check out those awesome looking valve covers. They are special built to allow plenty of room for the custom built roller rocker arms and the tall breather tubes have baffles to prevent blow-by at high speeds like the original R-Model GT350's.



BIGGGG Toolman grunt... Ohh Ohhh Ohhhhh! Even though this weekend was the first of two dates I wanted to test the car I gotta say I am feeling pretty chipper tonight. In the mean time my son and fellow teammate is up at Thunderhill racing and race directing this weekend. As Jon would say, we are living vicariously thru Will this weekend. Tomorrow I will install the carb and a few other things and if I have time I will finish changing the rear-end over to the new lightweight assembly.

This is where the whip begins cracking

I remember a phrase my high school coach often used... "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going." According to my calculations IF I am going to have Lucky ready to test at Infineon on September 22/23 that will only give me 43 days. IF I need any changes or modifications that will only give me 9 more days which will leave me exactly two weeks rest up and get the trailer and truck loaded and ready. Then we will hook up with the rest of the convoy headed for Mexico. If all goes as planned we will begin shoving the engine in tomorrow and in the meantime I thought you might enjoy some of the crowd Lucky has gathered over the last few days.

I won't bore you with details but due to the usual "Family & Business first" and opening our new corporate office earlier this year I have not had as much time to spend on Lucky as I had hoped. It's the same old thing us racers go thru no matter how much time we have before the next race. We always end up putting the finishing touches on the car the night before we leave for the track. For crying out loud... This project began over a year ago so how much time does it take to put a race car together anyway? All you have to do is find a body, do a little body work, do a little paint touch-up, build a bad-ass motor, shove it under the hood, bolt up a four-speed, connect that to a rear-end, connect a few wires, put in some glass, a seat and a steering wheel, fill'er up with some fuel and fire it up. What's the big deal?

Well, it sounds easy but to be entirely honest with you there are some that will tell you the only reason it takes so long is because I will not build anything short of perfection. Sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield so then again there is the fact I am never able to sleep as long as I am thinking about "What if?". Then I get up and begin doing some more research until I have in my mind what the absolute best plan of attack is. I must admit I live for this stuff. Jon and I as well as out teammates already understand that the reward for this sort of dedication and sacrifice far exceeds any $25 trophy they could ever give us. The real reward is looking back and asking, "Remember the time we...."

Suture.... Scalpel.... QUICK.... Duct tape!

During the early 70's while I was at Stanford University I was very fortunate to become acquainted with both Dr Christiaan Barnard and Dr Norman Shumway both whom were involved with the pioneer days of the first heart transplants in humans. The first heart transplant in human beings was done in South Africa in 1967 by Dr Christiaan Barnard and the patient only lived 18 days. Most of the research that led to successful heart transplantation took place at Stanford University under the leadership of Dr Norman Shumway. Knowing how involved I was with automobiles I used to tease Dr Shumway about his profession. On several occasions I asked him why doctors couldn't fix everything on humans considering we have not changed in design in thousands of years. On the other hand mechanics are expected to know how to repair anything that ails a car and as we all know cars by design change every year.

The truth is they were both truly great guys and I was blessed simply for having known them as friends. It's important to realize both of them were so much more than doctors it seemed and they always asked questions... "What does that part do? Explain to me how it works." You couldn't help but think they were always looking for something new to replace the human heart with. And even more amazing is to realize how far we have come today because of the two of them. The last time I saw Dr Shumway was at his home in Palo Alto about ten years ago when I picked up his car to work on it.

Today as I brought my engine back to the shop to reunite it again with Lucky and I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to show it off to those two awesome guys. I am sure they would both be smiling like I was as we started preparing the empty cavity in the front of Lucky in an effort to hear him come back to life again.

On another note I would like to mention something ironic. While I was reminiscing about all this my phone rang only for me to learn my shop foreman's father had suffered a serious heart attack and was in surgery. On behalf of California's Best Team and business and our employees I want to send our best prayers and thoughts to him and his family and wish him a speedy recovery.

Grab this

Having all of the horsepower in the world won't do us any good if we can't get it hooked up when we need it. That's where McLeod clutch discs come into the picture so we are hooked up with one of the best known clutches in the world of racing. It's McLeod Industries and they are located right here in California. Thanks to the help of McLeod Industries in order to get Lucky hooked up we will be using a state of the art racing clutch pressure plate and disc which is made up of organic, bronze, aluminum, and Kevlar. That's right, the same Kevlar used in bullet-proof vest.

Now things are getting REAL interesting

You have no idea what an awesome day today was. It began with a trip to my office for a few hours work before driving over to pick up a complete new posi-traction rear-end with axles and the whole enchilada. Then I drove to my engine builder's shop to watch a few dyno runs on Lucky's new power plant. Keep in mind I have been waiting for this day for almost a year now since the engine was literally one of the first things I began researching when this whole adventure began.

When I got to the engine builders place they had already made quite a few break-in runs and inspections before actually performing some dyno testing. I stayed out of the road (as best I could) while they continued testing the engine with various racing fuels and then some additive and octane boosters. The bottom line results were an accumulation of many many hours of research, questions answered by some of the biggest names in the racing world, some trial and error, a little luck and lots of prayers not to mention a lot of experience from one of the best engine builders in the U.S.

Keep in mind this IS NOT A STROKER and even more amazing is per the rules it has cast iron heads and a 500 CFM carb. If I had not seen it on the dyno with my own eyes I would not believe anyone telling me what an amazing power plant it is. If anyone were to tell me 10 years ago that a 289 could produce over 500 horsepower I would think they were drinking too much. But the bottom line is this engine has 503 horsepower with 385.2 foot pounds of torque at 6713 RPM. Even though we will not be pushing it that hard since it has so much low end torque which is the way I wanted it, my engine builder tells me it will run at 7000 RPM all day long.

On the hour drive home I was so excited as I was day dreaming about what had just taken place that when I looked down at the speedo on my truck I was being a very bad boy. And for the record, some of the items you see in the photos (like the crummy plug wires for example) are for the dyno run only. But check out those trick rocker arms and shafts complete with ceramic bushings instead of needle bearings the very same ones used in today's NASCAR engines.